Lars P. Syll

For a good many years, Tony Lawson has been urging economists to pay attention to their ontological presuppositions. Economists have not paid much attention, perhaps because few of us know what “ontology” means. This branch of philosophy stresses the need to “grasp the nature of the reality” that is the object of study – and to adapt one’s methods of inquiry to it. Economics, it might be argued, has gotten this backwards. We have imposed our pre-conceived methods on economic...

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The dangers of using ontologically ungrounded idealizations Using ‘simplifying’ tractability or ‘heuristic’ assumptions — rational expectations, common knowledge, representative agents, linearity, additivity, ergodicity, etc — because otherwise they cannot ‘manipulate’ their models or come up with ‘rigorous ‘ and ‘precise’ predictions and explanations, does not exempt economists from having to justify their modelling choices. Being able to ‘manipulate’...

.[embedded content] Spending a beautiful weekend on our island in the Karlskrona​ archipelago. Pure energy for the soul. You just keep me hanging on, Jeanette.

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Kathleen Stock and the woke cancel culture that threatens our universities Philosophy professor Kathleen Stock has been actively engaged in ongoing discussions about gender identity and transgender issues for a long time. In these discussions, she has expressed scepticism and concern about certain aspects of transgender ideology, particularly in relation to gender identity and its implications for women’s rights and spaces. Stock has argued that the concept...

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Kathleen Stock och cancelkulturen Filosofiprofessor Kathleen Stock har under lång tid varit engagerad i de pågående diskussionerna om könsidentitet och transrelaterade frågor. I dessa diskussioner har hon uttryckt skepticism och oro över vissa aspekter av transideologi, särskilt i relation till könsidentitet och dess konsekvenser för kvinnors rättigheter och utrymmen. Stock har argumenterat för att konceptet könsidentitet suddar ut betydelsen av biologiskt...

Central fallacies of modern economics To criticise/oppose the current mathematical modelling emphasis is to adopt an antiscience stance. It is not. Mathematics is not essential (or inessential) to science; science involves using tools that are appropriate to the given task. A science of economics is perfectly feasible, and the current emphasis on mathematical modelling in economics serves, given the nature of social reality, mostly to prevent that...